Frequently Asked Questions About Disasters

FEMA may be able to provide Lodging Expense Reimbursement (LER)  for out-of-pocket lodging expenses, but only if these expenses are not covered through other means, such as insurance.

To be considered for LER, you must meet basic eligibility criteria for assistance and FEMA must verify that your home is unlivable, inaccessible, or affected by an extended disaster-caused utility outage. You must also submit verifiable documentation, such as receipts, of your lodging expenses.

By law, FEMA cannot duplicate benefits provided through insurance. Many insurance policies include Additional Living Expenses (ALE) or Loss of Use (LOU) coverage, which provides money to cover lodging costs when you are unable to live in your home due to a disaster. If your insurance does not include ALE or LOU, or if the money provided by your insurance does not cover all your lodging expenses, you can submit your insurance documentation to FEMA to be considered for Lodging Expense Reimbursement.

Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) is a FEMA program that allows for temporary, short-term accommodations for eligible applicants when other housing options are not available.

Displaced renters who need a safe place to stay while they look for longer-term housing may be eligible for short-term hotel stays paid by FEMA under its Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program. Applicants cannot request TSA, but FEMA will identify survivors who may be eligible and have a need for this specific assistance. FEMA will communicate TSA eligibility through a variety of methods including voice; text; and email.

If TSA is approved by your state, territory, or tribal government, the list of participating hotels will be posted on DisasterAssistance.gov. You can also find this information by calling the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362. If you use video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA your number for that service.

By law, FEMA cannot duplicate benefits provided through insurance.

Many insurance policies include Additional Living Expenses (ALE) or Loss of Use (LOU) coverage, which provides money to cover temporary housing costs when you are unable to live in your home due to a disaster. If your insurance does not include ALE or LOU, or if the money provided by insurance does not adequately cover your temporary housing need, you can submit your insurance settlement to FEMA for consideration for Rental Assistance.

Do not re-submit or create a new application during the disaster assistance process. Submitting more than one application per disaster will cause delays. You can check the status of your application or read any FEMA correspondence by accessing your DisasterAssistance.gov account or by calling the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362.

Review the decision letter (sent by electronic correspondence of mail) which explains why you were not approved. Before submitting an appeal, it is important to understand the initial decision and what additional supporting documents to explain your situation are needed if you disagree with the decision. 

Please follow instructions in the decision letter. Remember to include the following information on all pages of submitted documentation:  

• Your name  
• Disaster number  
• Application number (found on top of decision letter) 

Once your online account is created, FEMA will email you a temporary 4-digit PIN. It may take up to 24 hours to receive your PIN. Check your spam and junk folders if you do not see the email in your inbox.

DRCs are physically accessible to people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs. They are equipped with assistance and adaptive technology such as amplified phones, caption phones, video phones, wheelchair ramps and other resources to help ensure all applicants can access resources.

Applicants with uninsured or underinsured disaster-caused medical or dental expenses. You may be eligible if:

• Your medical or dental expense was a direct result of the disaster.
• You are uninsured or underinsured for the medical or dental expense.

*Expenses covered by insurance or other sources are not eligible for FEMA reimbursement